


truly powerful

by arataka



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Character Study, Gen, basically a timeline of hops growth throughout base game swsh, inferiority! feeling like an impostor! fun!, theres a happy ending because its pokemon and its canoncompliant dont worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27720925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arataka/pseuds/arataka
Summary: there is some sort of relief when it comes to losing over and over and over.
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Hop, Implied Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	truly powerful

**Author's Note:**

> • this, originally, was my character biography for back when i roleplayed hop briefly around swsh's release. in my eyes it's nice enough to post on its own.
> 
> there are two pokemon referenced by name:  
> • airlee: hop's starting wooloo. means _promise._ connects to leon's nickname.  
> • abel: hop's grookey -> thwacky -> rillaboom. from the bible's abel. the second son, the first human to die.
> 
> • i hope you enjoy.  
> • [my twitter.](https://twitter.com/hoennian)

FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN REMEMBER, your brother has always been Galar’s champion. 

Lee is talented, brilliant; he is the shining star that awakened the sleepy town of Postwick from its slumber. You are three when his older brother seizes the championship with his little hands, and when all of the cheers and celebrations die down following his achievement, all eyes go to you. Wide and bright and glistening, they expect— no, _know_ that you are destined for the same level of glory Lee had attained, and all others are merely waiting in the rafters for it to happen.

Around the age of seven, the sound of moving trucks fills your neighborhood as the house down the lane welcomes new residents. Your legs wobble with excitement as you follow your mum and the smell of her delicious homemade casserole, all ready to be presented to the new folks in dreary Postwick. Gloria- the daughter of the nice lady you watch your mum talk to- soon becomes a friend, soon becomes someone who cannot judge you for not being a carbon copy of Lee. 

She has never known a better you.

You are ten, ready to pick up Gloria from her house before walking your way to school together. A Wooloo your father owns sneaks outside of its fence and is attempting to run over the gate outside Gloria’s house, and into the mist that is the Slumbering Weald. The first few tries you pay it no mind, up until you hear the crash of wood breaking and the innocent _baaa_ s of Wooloo rolling off into the forest. Dropping your bag, you run in pursuit, before finding it in battle with a grass-type pokemon, about to use poison sting. 

Poison stings hurt, but at least your father’s Wooloo won’t know the pain.

You are ten, sick and bedridden and trying to recover from the toxins because antidotes don't work on you the same way they do on pokémon. The small television they moved into your room shines brightly in the dark, as the camera zooms in on your brother's victorious smile. He looks happy.

You wonder how it feels to be truly powerful.

When you pick up Gloria from her house, the sight is familiar. You laugh awkwardly at the Wooloo rolling into the fence over and over, the pit growing ever so slightly in your stomach because it reminds you of Airlee. You can feel Gloria's eyes burning holes into the side of your head before you playfully scold the Wooloo and tell it not to wander off. As you run back to your house, you clench Airlee’s pokéball within your clenched fist. You’ll become stronger, and that was a promise.

When the Wooloo eventually finds itself victorious against the evil gate to the Slumbering Weald, you can feel the earth move under you. It’s only the knowledge that you not only have Airlee under your belt, but Abel the Grookey as well. Gloria is there by your side, as the mist threatens to envelope you whole into a clouded existence. (How ironic, it was.) The forest floor is damp as you try to shake Gloria awake, the scary wolf gone and Lee being the big hero who saves the day. 

Back in Postwick, when Gloria beats you and your duo into the ground twice before you get officially sponsored by your brother, you shrug it off. Just a little bump in the road. Airlee and Abel will be alright. After all, what is a king without his adversaries?

 _Alive,_ your mind nags.

No worry.

This is just the beginning of your legend.

The legacy you’ll tell to your grandchildren.

You ride the wave of energy you have as you tumble through Hulbury, Motostoke and the like. The defeats from Gloria are mere leaves flying in the wind to you— they are small roadblock in comparison to how fast you defeated the gyms and anyone else with ease. In Motostoke, before you head off to Hammerlocke to continue the next leg of your journey- no, your _legend-_ a boy your age pops up out of nowhere.

_Bede._

Tch.

What kind of name is that?

He belittles everything. Your pokéball throwing. Your potential. Your greatness.

_“All this prattle about Gloria and the champion and whatnot…_

_Do you not have anything of your own to show?”_

How dare he.

So you battle him.

And you lose.

The walk back to Hammerlocke is slow. You take your time, each step slow as molasses anticipating Gloria’s face when you have to tell her about your loss, how Bede said you make Lee seem weak. Were you doing that? Stepping on your brother’s fame, with no actual talent at all?

Is that why Gloria defeats you in battle all the time? Why _Bede_ beat you?

When you run into Lee once arriving in Hammerlocke, you can’t bear to face him. You run past him shouting an _“I’m sorry, Lee!”,_ hoping and praying that the wind masks the quite noticeable crack in your voice as you try not to cry. You never wanted to let Lee down, especially when _he_ was your goal, when _he_ was the one that endorsed you. Everyone expects that you would be just as good as lee, maybe even _stronger—_ but yet, you can’t even beat a simple challenger.

You can’t even beat _Gloria._

What does that say about you?

  
  


Cramorant. Toxel. Silicobra. Thwacky.

You still lose.

Trevenant. Heatmor. Snorlax. Boltund. Rillaboom.

You still lose.

Opal and Melony defeat you with no problem, and you fall to your knees.

What was it going to take in order to win?

What was it going to take to feel worthy enough?

In Circhester, Sonia tells the two of you about the heroes of old. How they saved the region from the Darkest Day, aided by a sword and shield in their battle. Your ears perk up at the mention of how you and Gloria could become Galar's new heroes, your heart jumping up to your throat.

To be a hero, Sonia says, is to make your own path.

This epiphany puts a little more pep into your step. You challenge Gloria once more- as an _“exhibition match with the future champion”-_ and put Airlee back onto your team. A promise, and that promise is to become the best you can be. 

Enough for Lee, enough for Gloria, enough for Galar.

In Wyndon, the semifinals await you. The crowd is loud, deafening even, but your heartbeat trumps them all. You are thankful that there had not been one of hundreds of cameras on you when the lady at the front desk told you you’d be facing Gloria, of all people. Your one and only rival, and possibly the best pokémon trainer in the Galar region. _(Possibly.)_

But you could be better. You will be better. You do not know for sure, not until the adrenaline begins to pump through your veins and you suddenly feel as if you could write history with this match. 

It is time to finish what you started.

It hurts. It hurts to smile.

Defeat finally settles into your skin for the third time in your life, and you tell yourself that you would not cry. _Could_ not cry. Yet you cry anyways. It’s brief but long enough where few people notice before confetti and tears become unidentifiable from each other. You thank Gloria for being there, as always, though everything.

After all, what is a king without his adversaries?

 _Weaker,_ you realize.

Lee invites the two of you to dinner that night. 

Although excited, you feel pitied. You are sure that Gloria and Lee will face off against each other in a battle that will change the course of history for Galar, while you will be standing in the stands cheering for one of them. You are not a disappointment according to the region, but you cannot help but wonder if they are lying through their teeth.

Just as the battle of the century is about to begin, the stadium is filled with a rumble. The gigantic television roared with the sound of glass cracking from too much energy, and you watch Lee leave in a flash. Running down to the field to catch up with Gloria before she expectedly leaves for Rose Tower, you remember Sonia's words, and the Slumbering Weald.

_“You could become Galar’s new heroes.”_

The rusted sword feels like home in your hands. You hope to arceus you were worthy.

In Rose Tower, you reach the chairman first. The battle is quick- you lose in almost an instant against the chairman, watching quietly behind Gloria as she slams his pokémon into the ground before you take her hand and head up to the summit of the building together to watch the show the chairman promised.

The show is Lee. 

Lee against the most horrifying pokemon you’ll see in your lifetime.

You manage to catch him right before he throws a pokéball at Eternatus a throw you have carefully studied to the point where you could emulate it perfectly. It is the perfect throw. But yet, why does your heart drop when you watch the pokeball split into two? Charizard protects you from the energy explosion, but… Lee didn’t capture it?

Was he going to lose?

Lee never loses.

That is how Lee works.

Gloria takes care of Eternatus through your incessant worrying, and you struggle to stand your ground as Eternatus flies up to take on a new form. With Lee unable to battle any longer, you find yourself as the stand-in, fighting alongside Gloria.

Though, your attacks don’t do any damage. Neither do Gloria’s.

The two of you are stuck, the pit inside growing larger as it drowns with worry, until you remember.

“Lory! Hold up the shield!”

With a burst of light, Zacian and Zamazenta appear by your side, ready to defend Galar. The four of you- the old heroes, and the new ones- attack Eternatus with all the power you could squeeze out of Airlee’s rollout, before Gloria is able to catch it and seal it away for good. Maybe you are a hero.

It comes with no surprise to you when Gloria defeats your brother. 

You were in the stands cheering her name, after all. 

Through the actions of Sordward and Shielbert, the fear of inadequacy sets in again for the first time in a while. Sordward had defeated you with ease, and while you wouldn’t care, he takes something very dear to you: the rusted sword you had laid to rest. You give chase to them, and run around Galar with Gloria and Piers with you as the weakest link.

When you arrive at the energy plant’s summit following your _second_ defeat to Sordward, you find Zacian acting in the weirdest way before running off after its defeat to Gloria. Even when you’re out of breath, you force yourself to follow in pursuit all the way to the Slumbering Weald, where Zacian stands fuming and angry, like a god about to wreak havoc.

_“Shh._

_You don’t have to worry. I’m here.”_

Be steady, your shaking hand. The stuttering breaths Zacian let out soon become slower and slower before it calms down, healed from the fury that the brothers had afflicted onto it. In the end, you spend a few minutes sitting in the midst of the Slumbering Weald, waiting for someone to come.

It was peaceful. It was like home.

It was like… how it used to be.

Zacian chooses _you_ as its hero, and you are more than elated. Elated enough for one final battle against Gloria, and this time you do not care who wins and who loses. You are home, here in the Slumbering Weald where it all began and where the legend of two little kids from Postwick started. You are home, in the Slumbering Weald where the first chapter of your legend will end, champion or not. 

Of course, you lose, but you couldn’t care less.

You decide to become a lab assistant under Sonia; she accepts your blank resumè without a single glance because she coincidentally just got a job opening. Days are spent either studying for another hard pop quiz Sonia will eventually drop on you, or running around to help with an errand or a pokémon that needs help somewhere. Days are spent seeing the sights of Galar without any gym challenge tying you down, or napping the day away in the Slumbering Weald comforted by the softness that is Zacian's fur.

Life is simple.

You are not Galar’s champion, but you are happy.

These two can co-exist without relying on the other. 


End file.
